Cricket Returns!

Following the government's roadmap out of lockdown, the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) released its much anticipated full guidance on Friday. This guidance is only applicable for Step 1B, up until the 12th April, however it does outline exactly what can and can't be done until then, while offering us a glimpse into the likely situation after Step 2, which all things being well, will come into play on April 12th.

We as a club need to adhere to our National Governing Body’s guidance, as this is what insurance cover aligns to, but we pride ourselves on taking welfare very seriously and are very lucky to have some very knowledgeable individuals who are experts in Safeguarding and Health & Safety.

Although the go ahead for cricket came too late last year for our junior cricket programme, we were able to have a handful of senior games, which allowed us to try out our practices and we gathered some excellent learnings and confidence from this, which we will continue to adopt this season. We erred on the side of caution and put more stringent measures in place than required in certain areas due to our particular club environment.

You may be aware that the ECB has launched the register for All Stars and its new programme for 8–11-year-olds, Dynamos Cricket. We have held off publishing our programme and opening up the sign-up process, until we have thoroughly digested the guidance and updated our Risk Assessments, Policies and Protocols accordingly.

As things stand, we plan to continue the usual offering on a Friday evening, but with staggered timings to allow smaller groups, more space and improved ratio of coaches to children. We are obviously limited by time, space and coaching resources, but we will do everything we can to keep things as normal as possible.

Junior Cricket headlines:

• Details of how to register for Junior Cricket and All Stars will be published soon

• Training planned to start 7th May

  • All Stars and U9s 6pm - 6.45pm

  • U11s, U13s and U15s 7pm - 8pm

  • Bar will be serving for outdoor consumption

  • No barbecue

• Fixtures for U9s and older age groups to follow soon

• Full details will be made as soon as possible

Senior Cricket headlines:

• Outdoor training to start as soon as possible

• Intra-club warm-up 24th April

• Pre-season Friendly 1st May

• Cherwell League fixtures commence 8th May

• Playing conditions will be largely similar, but slightly relaxed to last season

Social Sport headlines:

• Aunt Sally nights postponed until at least 17th May

• Cycling commences from April 12th in groups of six

• Darts nights not allowed until at least 17th May

• Pool nights not allowed until at least 17th May